It’s just their first ACC conference game of the season, but Stanford pulled out a 26-24 win on the road with a field goal as time expired. With both teams forced to punt on their first possessions of the game, the Cardinal scored first at the end of a 9 play 78 yard drive and 17 yard TD pass from Junior QB Ashton Daniels to Sophomore WR Elic Ayomanor to go up 7-0. Holding Syracuse scoreless in the 1st Qtr, Stanford would extend their lead with the start of back-to-back-to-back field goals as Senior Place Kicker Emmet Kenny hit two for the Cardinal of 38 and 51 yards while Junior Brady Denaburg hit one from 30 yards out for Syracuse to make it 13-3. And then with well under two minutes remaining in the half Syracuse Senior QB Kyle McCord, after being sacked for a loss of eight yards on his first play, would connect on consecutive passes of 16 and 67 yards—the last being a TD pass to Junior WR Umari Hatcher to pull within three points at the break, 13-10.
After Syracuse is forced to punt on their first possession to start the 3rd Qtr, Stanford gives the ball right back to them on an Ashton Daniels interception seven plays later at the Syracuse 25 yard line. The Orange can’t take advantage though and end up throwing a 71 yard pick six 11 plays later, digging themselves a deeper hole at 20-10. But give them credit, they came right back 75 yards and 9 plays later to close the gap back to three on a 19 yard Kyle McCord TD run to trail just 20-17 with time expiring in the 3rd Qtr. Forcing Stanford to punt on a three-and-out to start the 4th Qtr, Syracuse gets the ball right back but blows the opportunity on a first play interception leading to a 35 yard Stanford field goal and 23-17 lead with over nine minutes left in the 4th Qtr. After back-to-back three-and-outs Syracuse gets the ball back and takes the lead 24-23 on a 13 yard McCord TD pass to Senior WR Jackson Meeks at the end of a 7 play 60 yard drive with a little over three minutes left. The Cardinal would eat up all the time left with an 11 play 54 yard drive and Emmett Kenny 39 yard field goal to win the game 26-24 with time expiring.
For Stanford, QB Ashton Daniels connected on 23-of-38 for 178 yards, 1 TD, and 2 interceptions as well as rushed 13 times for 45 more of the Cardinal’s 173 total yards on the ground with Freshman RB’s Chris Davis Jr. and Micah Ford picking up all but two yards of the rest. Credit Senior Safety Mitch Leigber with 7 of those 26 points on the interception returned for TD and Emmett Kenny with 14—2 PAT’s and a perfect 4-for-4 on his field goal attempts, including that game winner. For Syracuse, QB Kyle McCord was 27-of-42 for 339 yards, 2 TD’s and 2 picks as well as their only rushing TD. In the air Junior WR Trebor Pena collected 10 of McCord passes for 101 yards with WR’s Umari Hatcher and Jackson Meeks accounting for both receiving TD’s. Stanford stays on the road to take on Clemson, Saturday the 28th, who took out NC State on Friday, 59-35.